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By Osama Siddique First, both choices are rather toxic — fans, often abusive, show blind, cult-like devotion to ‘demigod’ Imran Khan; and critics, often scornful, reserve instinctive, pathological malice for every syllable that he utters. Collectively, they deeply polarise conversations about him and jeopardise any fair and balanced assessment of his personality and politics. I shall steer well clear of …

Editorial IT is exactly a year ago that one of the bravest daughters of Pakistan, Asma Jahangir, passed away suddenly and quietly. A redoubtable defender of human rights and democratic values, champion of the downtrodden, and fierce opponent of repressive forces, she was, true to form, fighting the good fight to the end. Even today, indeed especially today, her voice …

HAH Report Islamabad The government has formed a 10-member committee to examine the constitutional, governance and administrative reforms for Gilgit-Baltistan. According to a summary submitted to the Supreme Court of Pakistan by the Attorney General of Pakistan (AGP), Anwar Mansur Khan, Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan Minister will be the committee’s convener with federal and GB law ministers, GB governor, the …

Mudabbir Ali Some say it is a year-old video. Be that as it may, the video came under spotlight of social media very recently. It showed students – both girls and boys – of Karakorum International University (KIU) dancing to a folk song alongside TV anchor Sanam Baloch. And it has generated a lively outburst of public debate in Gilgit-Baltistan. …

Aziz Ali Dad ‘If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed but if you read the newspaper, you’re mis-informed.’—Mark Twain Asia encompasses diverse countries and regions – in terms of religion, culture, language, ethnicity and history. However, the region has remained a geographical category not a cultural entity because of the lack – if not absence – of initiatives to conceptualise …

By Sultan Abbas After the incidents of Punjab University and Peshawar University recently the vigilantism has reared its ugly head in Karakoram International University Gilgit. The debate over women’s participation in cultural activities has taken the social media by storm after performance of dance by some KIU girl students in a TV programme. It indicates the division in society over …

By Farman Ali Islamabad, Oct 14: Artist and poet Ahmed Habib’s latest artwork is a self-reflection on relationships, inner conflicts, and emotional attachment with personal belongings. The exhibition titled, Aayiney (mirrors) was inaugurated by Austrian Ambassador Briggitt Blaha on Ocxtober 3 at Nomad Gallery that was followed by the screening of a short documentary on the artist’s work. A large …

The American model for development after World War-II was utterly incongruent with the social, economic, political and institutional ground realities in Pakistan ...For this very reason, American and Pakistan’s ruling elites’ solution of throwing money for the alleviation of poverty did not have much success,” Professor Nipa Banerjee, a senior fellow, Faculty of Social Sciences at the School of International Development and Global Studies at Ottawa University, Canada.

Herald Report Islamabad: Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) government is working on a proposal to control land erosion in three towns by cascading banks of main rivers meandering through the capital towns of three districts. A Chinese firm has shown interest in the project and negotiations are in the final stages to ink an agreement with the company, Chief Minister Hafiz Hafeezur Rehman …

Aziz Ali Dad In the world of ideas, thinking has a pivotal position because it is deemed to be the locus from which ideas emerge. However, the process of thinking remains in the background for the reason that we tend to focus on the ideas on the foreground only. Ideas elicit our attention, for they gradually manifest themselves in social and personal …